As part of its residency training program, The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) has opened a new Simulation Center equipped with state-of the art technology, permitting medical residents and student nurses to practice interventions on highly realistic, computer-controlled mannequins and other devices that replicate human tissue and biological systems.

Brooklyn Hospital Center residents Dr. Thaung Myint and Dr. Dan Le work with a simulation of a patient in cardiac arrest

“We now have technology that enables us to offer more and more varied clinical experiences,” says Richard Becker, M.D., President and CEO of TBHC. “Practicing procedures in this setting fine tunes technical and clinical skills, provides training in making complex diagnosis and treatment choices, and builds confidence. Most importantly, it translates into better patient care.”

“The technology used in the Simulation Center is changing the face of medical education,” says Benson Yeh, M.D., TBHC’s Chief Academic Officer. “Nearly all residency-level education used to take place in a traditional hospital setting. By creating a ‘virtual’ patient in a virtual clinical setting, we can provide residents and nurses with real-life scenarios and give them hands on experience with procedures, laparoscopic techniques, and cardiac arrest. Hands-on learning in this environment benefits patients and residents.”

The Simulation Center helps students learn challenging procedures, such as inserting a central venous catheter line or performing laparoscopic surgery. In addition, the technology gives residents the chance to practice an intervention dozens of times. They can also review a video of their own work on a computer.

Medical simulation also helps residents learn how to make complex decisions about diagnosis and treatment, which requires weighing multiple pieces of information simultaneously or in quick succession.

“In order to treat a patient in distress, physicians must consider many factors, including the age and gender of the patient, vital signs, and medical history,” says Dr. Yeh. “Each piece of data serves to guide a physician’s decisions from moment to moment, as each new piece of information or change in the patient’s condition potentially leads to different choices. Simulation Centers such as ours help students acquire these judgment skills. You can’t get this from a conventional academic setting.”“The simulation Center also lets doctors and nurses in training see the world from a patient’s point-of-view,” says Christine Fothergill-Cox, R.N., Director of Nursing Education at TBHC, who notes that the mannequins can express pain and discomfort. “Residents come away understanding that it’s not enough to give great care technically, they also have to help patients avoid any unnecessary pain.”